


The Returning of Souls

by quicksylver28



Series: Prompts, Drabbles & Teasers [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Challenge Response, Drabble, F/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 05:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16591487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksylver28/pseuds/quicksylver28
Summary: They gave him this suit at the funeral home. The clothes he'd been wearing when he died had already been ruined by the paramedics and the hospital staff.  That's usually how it went, especially in these modern times. Back in the day they used to leave you in the clothes you died in, propped up in a coffin by the road for public display.





	The Returning of Souls

**Author's Note:**

> this is a response to a prompt in my writing group. there was a picture... i'll try to post it below and you had to write a story 500-2000 words. i was already in the zone, taking a break from my RT Nano challenge and decided to to this one. i may attempt the others.
> 
> this is technically not a HP fic but i didn't know how else to tag it. One of the pictures is of Daniel Radcliffe to take it as you will. it's open to interpretation.
> 
> please note: this artwork is not mine. but is taken from the challenge page. i may or may not do my own art for this.

 

 

They gave him this suit at the funeral home. The clothes he'd been wearing when he died had already been ruined by the paramedics and the hospital staff.  That's usually how it went, especially in these modern times. Back in the day they used to leave you in the clothes you died in, propped up in a coffin by the road for public display.

 

At least he'd woken up before the embalming this time. He'd sure given the poor attendant a frightful shock. The sallow looking youth had fainted dead away when he'd jerked to life and pulled in a ragged breath that had sent him almost double. The resulting coughing fit had almost taken him ass over tea kettle over the side of the large metal table.

 

He'd lain back with a sigh, taking in deep lung fulls of sweet, sweet oxygen. Even with the way the world was polluted now, the air still tasted so sweet in the moments after an 'enlivening'.

 

After he'd revived the poor attendant, spinning a yarn about a rare congenital disease and reassuring them that he had no intent to sue, the elderly woman who ran the Funeral home had warmed to him.

 

She found him a suit from the back of her late husband's closet, an all-black number that didn't look too dated; then she'd helped trim his shoulder length hair and trimmed his beard. Once the lanky attendant had given his own thumbs up, she'd declared him fit for proper society.

 

With a handful of cash and the ashes of his last life, he turned towards the train station and started walking. He had just enough for a ticket and a cup of shitty coffee. The train ride gave him time to think. Time to lament all of the things he'd acquired in the life he left behind. He'd been an IT specialist, working from the comfort of his small apartment.

 

He wondered who would be dealing with his effects, he hadn't cultivated many friends outside of the internet and his favourite comic book store. It didn't really matter, he hadn't really been attached to any of it. Except for some of his collectibles. Those had been a source of great joy.

 

It was night by the time he stepped off the train, flipping up his collar and pulling his jacket tighter around him against the cold; and started walking. His path took him hours into the wild marches, skirting around gigantic trees with branches like reaching, vine laden arms. The moon rose bright and full and painted the breathtaking landscape silver.

 

Behind a copse of dying trees, an old house came into view. Once a thriving plantation, all that was left of the place was the old manor house. The regal white pillars  and paneled walls of yester year were dark now and over grown with vines. He skirted the house, looking for light in the windows and finding none, before taking a small worn path away from the manor.

 

The lake was placid and reflected the moon perfectly. There was a sense of peace to the place, all the sounds of the forest and the song of the night insects falling away as he approached the water's edge. He took a seat on a large fallen log, content to watch the moonlight play across the still waters.

 

He'd been sitting for about an hour when the water started rippling, scattering the pale moonlight. A long tentacle emerged from the water, curling in the night hair as lake water splashed off of it in rivulets. It disappeared back under the water, letting the surface settle before coming up again, this time much closer.

 

The ripples grew closer each time until they were gently lapping against the shore line. This time the arm appearing was human, followed by the rest of a human body, pale and bare. Her near white skin glowed in the moon light, her long black hair slicked against her back and breasts as she walked. He stood, holding out a towel that had been folded nearby. 

 

Fathomless black eyes stared at him for a few haunting moments before she reached for the cloth. She continued to stare as she patted her cheeks dry, unbothered by her own nudity or of his presence. Slowly, she walked around him, leaning in to sniff at him and touch his shoulders, arms and chest.

 

"Nice suit" her voice thrummed with dark magic and ancient power. "I can smell the corpse that wore it before."

 

He shrugged, adjusting the jacket and inspecting the lining. "Needs must."

 

"Ah… I missed your humor." her chuckle was like the earth cracking open. "You were the only one who could make me laugh"

 

He raised a skeptical brow. "I'm the only one left alive."

 

"That's because you could make me laugh."

 

She tilted her head oddly, as if this was a given. He nodded in acquiescence, accepting it for what it was. He followed her as she walked towards the house, her bare hips swaying in the dappled moonlight between the tree canopy. He walked a step behind and to the left, falling into familiar behaviour with such ease. So many years apart and still he couldn't help it.

 

She stopped abruptly at the tree line, turning to face him once more. Her eyes were an endless black, her pale skin luminescent. Her full, generous lips hid a mouth full of fangs and her soft giving curves masked the cold grip of a long and painful death.

 

"Have you truly come back to me my love?"

 

She was perfect. She always had been. Since time began and long after it would end, she endured. Beautiful and dark and ravenous. Power raw and savage, barely contained in the breathtaking vessel before him. He looked passed her shoulder up to the house, a sight as familiar and beloved as his own face in the mirror.

 

With its long, winding halls and rooms full of shadows. He'd missed this. Being here. Being a part of this. His eyes were drawn back to her as he thought about the life he'd left behind. All the lives he'd gone out and lived. All the times she'd let him from her grasp, from her sight because he'd asked her too. He thought about them all and released them, letting them all float away like brittle leaves in the wind.

 

There was no need for that anymore. He'd seen the world, he'd known its pleasures and its pains. He'd dug his hands and his teeth and his cock into mortality and had gorged himself on it. And after seeing it all, living it all, he realized that in the end none of it mattered.

 

All that mattered was here. All that mattered was her.

 

He was hers. He always would be. Out of all the others that came before, the many who served her and loved her through the ages, he was all that was left. All that remained to lover her and serve her and worship his dark goddess at her alter.

 

He gave her a sweet little sigh and fell to his knees in supplication.

 

"I am, as I ever was, as I ever will be… yours, my lady."

 

Her smile was beatific, darkly divine as her numerous fangs shone in the moonlight. She ran her fingers though his hair, her sharp nails scraping against his scalp as she pulled him to her. She stepped closer, pressing his face to her pale, soft belly, her other hand cradling the back of his neck.

 

"Perfect" the word hung in his mind like the clearest of sacred bells.

 

He inhaled deeply, taking in her soft milky scent, laced with the rich smell of rich, old earth and the cloying sweet of rotting fruit. He felt a cold hand against his cheek and looked up into her deep and fathomless eyes.

 

"Come now my love, it's time to welcome you home."

 

She stepped back and held out her hand, a vision of deathly beauty in the light of the moon and he fell in love with her all the more. Climbing to his feet, he took her hand and let her lead him back to the house.

 

Throwing her head back with wild abandon, she laughed and the night laughed with her.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> a bit ambiguous yes i know but i like it like that.


End file.
